David Tepper is no longer proposing merely to modernise Bank of America Stadium, as the latest renderings, expanded budget and commercial infrastructure surrounding the project amount to an attempt to make a 30-year-old building behave like a new one.

Tepper Sports & Entertainment has increased its contribution to the Charlotte stadium renovation by $500m, taking the total project cost from $800m to $1.3bn. The City of Charlotte’s previously agreed $650m investment remains unchanged, meaning TSE will now match the public contribution rather than supply only the original $150m.

That additional commitment substantially changes the balance of the deal approved by Charlotte City Council in June 2024 — and the scope of what is promised in return. Rather than replacing the home shared by the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC, the project will strip away much of its dated concrete identity and turn the uptown site into a broader sports, entertainment and hospitality business.

Work behind the scenes has already begun, with the first fan-facing construction scheduled for early 2027 and completion targeted for 2030. HOK is leading the design, Clark Construction and D.A. Everett are the contractors and CAA ICON is representing the owner.

The most extensive renderings released to date show glass replacing large sections of the existing exterior, a wider upper concourse and an open-air premium area facing Charlotte’s business district. Every seat and the entire audio-visual system will be replaced, while the seating bowl will be reorganised to provide a greater range of general, social and premium products.

While Bank of America Stadium will remain recognisable, its commercial emphasis will change. The east side, historically underused despite facing uptown, is being redesigned to improve access, retain supporters for longer and create additional revenue opportunities. A large social patio on the north-western side of the upper deck will incorporate a DJ and game-day stage, alongside covered bars and standing areas. Premium clubs will be comprehensively rebuilt, a new hospitality space will overlook the east gate and the team store will be enlarged. Night-time lighting around the stadium’s upper edge is intended to resemble a crown, connecting the building to Charlotte’s ‘Queen City’ identity.

“We did previously have one of the largest upper decks in the NFL, and we’ll continue to have that,” TSE chief executive Kristi Coleman told Sports Business Journal. “But what we’re most excited about is the diversity in offerings, so people can enjoy the game a little bit differently.”

The project’s clearest indication of a wider purpose, however, sits outside the stadium. A new 4,400-capacity music venue will be built on its north-east side, with TSE projecting between 80 and 100 performances each year fulfilling an idea that emerged from Tepper’s conversations with supporters travelling to Panthers games from elsewhere in the Carolinas.

“A lot of our fans said, ‘We’re coming from Raleigh or Charleston for the Panthers games, and we want more to do in Charlotte,” Coleman explained. “Charlotte is a growing city, there’s seemingly so much to do, but we want something right there in uptown’.”

That venue converts the renovation from a collection of stadium improvements into an attempt to create a more active year-round district in line with the majority of other proposed NFL new builds and makeovers. It also reflects the economics behind Tepper’s increased commitment: the refurbished stadium must generate more revenue on more days, rather than relying principally upon Panthers and Charlotte FC fixtures.

The sales effort is already operating as if the new building exists. TSE has opened a near 16,000-square-foot Bank of America Stadium Experience Center across the road, where prospective buyers can move through a virtual version of the completed venue, examine their route from parking space to suite and physically test replica premium seats and hospitality areas. The centre uses digital ‘deposit boxes’ containing moments from the stadium’s history, holographic contributions from more than 85 figures and an immersive cube through which visitors can explore the planned renovations. Sales representatives can alter each presentation in real time according to a prospect’s interests and objections. Buyers can even leave with a newly printed suite key card.

“It gives the momentum for everything,” Coleman told SBJ. “It allows fans and people to see a tiny taste of what we’re doing.”

The facility is presented as a preview centre, but its underlying function is more direct, as it allows TSE to begin monetising the renovation several years before completion. The scale and sophistication of the sales operation underline how important premium inventory has become to the project’s financial logic. Bank of America has reinforced that commercial momentum by signing a long-term extension to the naming-rights agreement it first established in 2004. Financial terms and the length of the new deal were not disclosed.

“The stadium has, in many ways, become synonymous with the Bank of America brand,” said Elliott Cox, Bank of America’s global sports partnerships executive. “Over 20-plus years, we’ve built a tremendous amount of brand equity with the Panthers. We’re excited to step into the next chapter with Tepper Sport and obviously the exciting projects that are getting ready to kick off across the street.”

Charlotte’s $650m contribution will come from hospitality and tourism taxes which, under North Carolina law, are restricted to projects supporting the visitor economy and cannot be redirected to general services such as education, public safety or affordable housing. In return, the agreement prevents the Panthers from leaving Charlotte through 2045.

The original arrangement passed by a 7-3 council vote amid concerns over both the size of the public contribution and Tepper’s record with abandoned facility projects. The owner’s extra $500m does not erase those arguments, but it produces a considerably more even split than the deal councillors initially approved. TSE is also responsible for cost overruns.

The expanded design has inevitably encouraged discussion about what the completed stadium might bring to Charlotte. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell attended the public unveiling and toured the experience centre, where Tepper raised the prospect of the city finally hosting a Super Bowl. Goodell offered little encouragement on that front, however, principally because Bank of America Stadium will remain open-air, while Charlotte still lacks the hotel inventory and concentration of nearby event facilities normally required by the NFL’s showcase game.

A different league event, however, appears considerably more realistic.

“You see the way the downtown is evolving, the first thing that came into my mind, I said to David, ‘This is built for a draft’,” Goodell told Sports Business Journal. “The draft now has close to one million people attending — and they’re coming from all over, including internationally. It’s become a global event that I think would be a terrific thing here in this town with all that’s being built.”

The 2027 draft will be staged on Washington D.C.’s National Mall, with Minneapolis following in 2028. Charlotte could therefore enter the bidding cycle while its stadium work is approaching completion.

“Our fan-facing renovations start in 2027 and we should be done by 2030,” Coleman confirmed. “After that, we’ll definitely have conversations about a draft. Of course we would. We would open the door for them.”

Tepper responded to the Super Bowl’s accommodation problem by suggesting Charlotte residents could emulate Augusta homeowners who rent out their properties during the Masters.

“In fact,” he told Goodell, “I got [Panthers general manager] Dan Morgan’s house for you already.”

That is the central trade-off in the project. By preserving the Panthers’ long-established uptown location, Charlotte is avoiding the greater cost of a completely new enclosed stadium and, in doing so, is creating a venue capable of staging more events, offering more premium products and interacting more effectively with its surrounding district. What it is not creating, however, is a building designed to satisfy every ambition Tepper may hold for it. The new Bank of America Stadium should look and operate very differently by 2030, but its ceiling, both literally and competitively, will remain open.

All images courtesy Tepper Sports & Entertainment/HOK